User interface displays, such as displays of web pages, (or portions thereof) are often constructed from templates. Arguments may be provided to the templates via various carriers. In the context of templates for web pages, as an example, the carriers include uniform resource locator (URL) parameters, cookie values, and hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) POST variables. In some situations, it is desirable to provide a single standalone link as a reference to a fully constructed instance of a template, where the template and its arguments are already combined. Such a reference may require a way of providing parameters for generating the constructed instance of a template. One conventional way of providing parameters for template construction includes appending parameters to a URL. URLs, however, by their nature lack an ability to specify cookie or POST values. In addition, there exist situations where it is desirable to distinguish the template arguments from the fully constructed template instance, such as in situations where the template arguments can be used in other templates.
Various ways of providing arguments for templates exhibit various disadvantages. The use of URLs to provide template arguments, for example, is affected by limitations regarding browser capabilities. Many browser applications have limits on the size of URLs, thereby creating size limitations for arguments appended to URLs. If the arguments for a template have a collective size exceeding that which is allowed by a browser, providing the arguments can become a complex endeavor. In addition, the use of URLs for providing template arguments can adversely impact user experience. In some instances, for example, users may want to provide URLs to other users. One way of doing this is to cut and paste a URL into a document, such as an electronic mail message, that can be transferred to another user. A URL with multiple appended parameters may be unsightly and may occupy a substantial amount of space in a document. In addition to all of this, the various conventional ways of providing arguments for templates often require servers to combine template arguments with templates, thereby requiring the servers to utilize their own resources for template construction and, therefore, significantly decreasing the servers' ability to respond to other requests. These and other disadvantages may be overcome by various embodiments of the present disclosure.